May 29, 2014

DESPITE NONCONFORMING PARTS, IG OK WITH KC PLANT QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM

By ExchangeMonitor

An unnamed vendor provided nonconforming parts to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Kansas City Plant for nearly 30 years, according to a Department of Energy Inspector General report that gives plant contractor Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies’ quality assurance program a clean bill of health despite the issues. According to the IG report, the vendor was found to have deviated from design requirements on parts supplied to the plant during a 2013 on-site review of the vendor by Honeywell and Sandia National Laboratories, and it was later determined that the vendor had made substitutions on parts provided to the Kansas City Plant dating to July 1985. According to the IG, there were sometimes as many as six substitutions per part, affecting more than 10,000 parts in all. “The affected parts had issues with substituted processes, materials, adhesives and/or coatings,” the IG report said.

The IG found no fault with Honeywell’s quality assurance program, noting that the NNSA had approved the program, Honeywell regularly inspected parts from vendors, and documented non-conforming parts when discovered. In response to the issue with the vendor, Honeywell initiated its own review of the problem and issued a pair of Corrective Action Reports, “which identified certain enhancements that would further ensure that Design Agency requirements continued to be met.” The IG said: “Nothing came to our attention to indicate that Honeywell’s quality assurance program did not ensure Design Agency requirements were met.”

The IG said that Honeywell and Sandia were optimistic that the substitute parts would still be able to be used. Using stockpile surveillance test data to evaluate the impact of the substitutions, Honeywell and Sandia found the parts “will most likely be accepted because no adverse impact on weapon performance had been identified.” Full acceptance of the parts is expected by June, the IG said.

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